I believe I asked the same question ~5 years ago and was given answer that it wouldn't work, though I can't find that thread. I think among the reasons was the need to properly communicate "Card information structure" (CIS), which is needed to initialize the hardware. But I didn't perform any tests to confirm that.

//edit: i think you would have better chances with MiniPCI to PCI adapter, as both seem to be different form factors of "real" PCI devices.

There is already an adapter that does this.

Look up magma.

The card is driverless so it should work for whatever, even in DOS.

I have one and multiple expansion chassis but haven't actually messed with them yet.

The pcmcia / card is card definitely supports I think either 2 or 3 extra slots, but you can get chassis with up to I think 13 slots.

It is on my list of projects but of course nothing ever goes as planned.

adalbert wrote on 2021-04-04, 21:29:

//edit: i think you would have better chances with MiniPCI to PCI adapter, as both seem to be different form factors of "real" PCI devices.

Sadly, the laptop is too old to have anything resembling a MiniPCI connector : )

cyclone3d wrote on 2021-04-04, 21:39:

There is already an adapter that does this.

Look up magma.

The magma card does look promising and seems to do what I want but it seems to be Unobtainium where I live.
Do you have some info on which chipset is used? I could not read it on the pictures I found online.
Maybe there is some other source for it.
Also does the CardBus card itself contain any "intelligence" or is it just an adapter to the actual PCI board where the main "translation" happens? i.e. is the conversion done on the PCB or the card?

So, the magma setup uses either a pcmcia or pci or PCIe or express card on the host computer and then the expansion chassis has a PCI card... At least for the higher count slot chassis. If I remember correctly, the smaller chassis have a proprietary type card. A cable hooks between the two cards. For the larger expansion chassis, you really could use whatever PCI backplane you want to.

These setups are / were also sold as expansion chassis for avid pro tools and also as digidesign.

So I should probably start looking for the these on our favorite auction site...

It defeats the point of it being a laptop imo. wonder if voodoo2 SLI would work on a laptop with one though. 🤣

I mean even these days Thunderbolt 3 eGPU cases are a thing 😀

It would definitely be a one of a kind setup

Warlord wrote on 2021-04-04, 23:02:

It defeats the point of it being a laptop imo. wonder if voodoo2 SLI would work on a laptop with one though. 🤣

It should... You would still need an external monitor though.

mrfrakes wrote on 2021-04-04, 20:48:

So I just received my first retro notebook the other day. It is a Fujitsu Lifebook C345 with PII 266MHz. While I think it is a pretty nice system, it is let down by the Trident Video Chipset.

do you have the driver package for this laptop ?

i have a C345 but i lost the files.

i am particularly interested in the video driver but AFAIK there also was a tool to create a hibernation partition (bios looks for such a partition at boot if the hibernate feature is enabled) .

it is indeed a nice compact system for 2d and software rendered 3d games and it has a SB compatible ess adiodrive built in, so even dos games are no problem.

Yes, it is quite difficult to find drivers for this thing these days. Since it seems to be a common problem, I might create a thread just to keep all the drivers in one place and the mods that I have done (400MHz oc, SSD, installing Debian, ...). But no promises.

For now the Windows 98 and 2k video drivers:
2k: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nrCtL5aFc_fA … iew?usp=sharing
98 (from Fujitsu Asia): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-QLNq0EdERBa … iew?usp=sharing
98 (from Fujitsu Europe): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AG8iVLOAs9YC … iew?usp=sharing

I dont own the driver disc myself, I found these drivers by searching the deepest depths of the internet 😀
Sadly, I dont know anything about the hibernation partition (maybe this helps? Phdsik utility? http://www.fujitsu-pc-asia.com/driversupport/ … rv_lb_c342.html). Let me know if you need something else.